Five For Sunday

Today was a running day and it was a great way to end the week. I pounded out 5 miles at a 12:53 pace. I wasn’t happy with the pace but I was happy with the run and how it went.

All week I struggled with running. Today I woke up, had some breakfast and headed out around 9:30. The air was cool and crisp without a cloud in the sky. I was a little worried about this run, not to mention the Bolder Boulder 10K next week, since I had struggled so much earlier in the week. For some reason this run was great. I got into a good rhythm and was able to run almost the entire way. I didn’t have any of the “weak” feeling I had earlier in the week. I just ran and really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow starts another week and with today’s run under my belt I’m really excited for the Bolder Boulder 10K. I was worried that I might not be able to finish it, but now I have no doubts and I’m focusing on really enjoying it.

- Dennis

Third Time Is Kind Of The Charm

Today was a running day and I was finally able to finish all 3.5 miles. It wasn’t pretty and I walked a lot more than I wanted to but I got it done. I decided after my last two failed attempts that I wasn’t going to time myself today. I just wanted to finish any way I could. I got to about the same point as yesterday when I started feeling weak again. So I started to walk more and run less. But the important thing is that I continued on and finished.

After getting some encouraging words after yesterdays post, I’m not going to focus on times and running the entire way. I’m going to focus on slowly getting better and enjoying my runs. I need to remind myself that on this Sundays 5 mile run. It should be very interesting.

Speaking of enjoying, today was my treat day so I got my usual Slurpee and Gummy Worms.

Amazing Friday night

Oh man where they amazing. And I for sure enjoyed the heck out of it.

- Dennis

Disappointing Run

Today was a running day and it was supposed to be a make up for the 3.5 miles that was cut short by rain the other day. Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead I ran 1.98 miles at a 13:20 pace then had to stop. I’m not sure why, but I had zero energy. Right after I hit the 1 mile mark I got light headed and tried to continue but had to stop just short of 2 miles. I walked back the rest of the way, so at least I got a little more of a workout in.

The only thing I can think is that because of my drastic cut in calories from the last three weeks and not drinking enough water today, I was just off. So tomorrow I’m going to drink more water and I’m thinking about doing an early morning run. When I do run early, they seem to go pretty well, so maybe combining the two will allow me to have a good run tomorrow. I guess we’ll see

- Dennis

After Dinner Workout

Today was supposed to be a double day but mother nature was having none of that. Instead I did a workout and will just have to make up the run on Friday. Workout was a typical workout of push-ups, squats and abs. I only did one set of squats in hopes that my hammy will continue to heal and not set me back anymore. Here’s the breakdown.

3 Sets
Push-Ups x 10
Lunges (bw) x 10 (1 set)
Crunches (straight, side, leg lifts)

Tomorrow is a running day so I will try to get the 3.5 miles in that was cut short yesterday. I felt pretty good during the run, so I’ll take it slow again and try to keep everything flowing. One step at a time.

- Dennis

Racing The Rain

Today was a running day and because it was the first one in 2 weeks, I wasn’t expecting much. I pounded out 2.37 miles at a 12:44 pace. This is a lot slower than my usual but I tried to take it slow in hopes that my Hammy wouldn’t throw a revolution. So far it seems to have worked. It was a little tight at the start but felt better as I went.

The best part of the run was racing the rain. When I left I thought the rain was going the other direction. In actuality the giant thunderstorm was heading right for me. Thankfully my amazing fiance swooped in and picked me up before the heavy rain started.

Since this cut my run short, I’m going to try to get 3.5 miles in again tomorrow. Hopefully, mother nature is going to work with me.

- Dennis

Long Time, No See

So, It’s been almost three weeks since my last post. To give you a quick run down, I went to Florida for work, pulled my hamstring, went to New York for a week and then to Ohio for a couple days. Oh, and that whole time, I ate nothing but garbage and gained about 12 pounds. I’m not very happy about it and because I pulled my hamstring playing softball, I couldn’t workout which made it ever worse. I had a sweet picture of the bruise from my pulled muscle but I deleted it. So I really have nothing at all to show from the last three weeks of my life except for the fact that my pants are a little tighter.

I’m not going to give you or myself the painful speech about how I’m going to rededicate myself and make everything better. Mainly because I’ve done that a number of times already. Not this time. This time I’m just going to do it and with my upcoming move from Colorado to Florida it won’t be easy, but it’s time for me to stop pretending and make eating healthy and working out an integral part of my life not just something I get through.

And I know you are thinking that the last paragraph is the painful speech I said I wasn’t going to give. I guess I needed just one more.

I’ll be back to daily (or almost daily) posts starting tomorrow. In the mean time, how do you make healthy living a part of your life an not just something you struggle through to get to the rest of your day?

- Dennis

Monday Funday

Today was a workout day. It was good to get back into a workout since mother nature tricked me yesterday.

Yesterday I went out for a run and about a 1/4 mile into my run, it started to rain. Since it was in the 50s and windy, it was a little to cold to run in the rain. I headed home and made it before the skies opened up. I thought, awesome, made it back just in time, hopped in the shower and to my surprise when I got out it was perfectly blue out. I could have easily made my run, but oh well, it was an extra rest day.

So today I did the usual push-ups and squats and left out the abs. During my first set of abs, I felt a little pull. Instead of pushing it, i just skipped the rest. Better safe than sorry. Ab strains can be a huge pain and take forever to heal. Here’s the breakdown…

3 Sets
Push-Ups x 15
Squats (bw) x 12

Tomorrow is a 3.5 mile run and it looks like the weather is going to cooperate and allow me to get it in. The rest of the week will be interesting, since I will be out of town for 1.5 weeks for work, then come home for about 18 hours only to leave for another week. Gotta figure out a way to get my runs in while I’m gone. Should be interesting.

- Dennis

Saturday Stroll

Today was a running day and it went pretty well. I pounded out 3 1/2 miles at an 11:53 pace. This is a lot better than my 3 1/2 mile run on Tuesday. My legs felt good and the weather gods helped out by letting the sun come out and play. Even though the wind was kicking and added a little extra resistance to the run, I didn’t mind too much.

Tomorrow is my long run for the week at 5 miles. There’s a chance of rain in the afternoon, so I’m begging the weather gods to help me out again and give an hour or so of clear running.

- Dennis

Rain Altered

Today ended up being a workout day. I was supposed to run yesterday, but I got rained out so yesterday turned into an impromptu off day. So that made today, my usual off day a running day. Well, the rain showed up again today and put the kibosh on running today making today a workout day that was supposed to be tomorrow. Make sense?

I did the usual stair push-ups, squats and crunches. Stair push-ups felt really good today. These are generally the hardest for me to do but I was able to do sets of 12 today. Here’s the breakdown.

3 Sets
Push-Ups x 12
Squats (bw) x 12
Crunches (straight, side, leg lifts)

Quick weight update – Weighed in at 261 this morning. Pretty happy about that. So happy that I went out and got a Double Down from KFC to celebrate. That makes a lot of sense right, right?

Amazingness without a bun

It’s cheat day, so it’s ok.

Tomorrow is a 3 1/2 mile day and I’m hoping the rain will stay away long enough for me to get it in. I’ll have to go early since we have an open house so that might help.

- Dennis

Two Workouts, One Day

Oh double days, how much do I love thee? Let me count the ways. 1 … Ok I can’t even get to one, but I did get two workouts in today.

Part 1

The first part was a workout. Workout was the usual Wednesday workout of bouncy ball push-ups, lunges and planks. Everything felt decent but nothing very special. Here’s the breakdown.

3 Sets
Bouncy Ball Push-Ups x 12
Lunges (bw) x 10
Planks (straight 30 secs, side 15 secs)

Part 2

The second part of the double was a run. I pounded out two miles at an 11:00 pace. This pace is a little slower than I did last week, but it wasn’t awful. I actually thought my pace was going to be quicker than 11:00. I started out strong and then hit a little bit of a wall with about 3/4 of a mile left. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Tomorrow is a 3.5 mile run and I would really like my legs to feel good so I don’t have a repeat of Tuesday. I would also like the rain to hold off like it did today. If someone could take care of that, that would be great.

- Dennis